1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for transmitting and receiving electronic mail, which is an electronic messages, and especially relates to a technique which anticipates whether or not an environment is satisfactory for a user to be able to access the electronic mail transmitting and receiving system, and which automatically determines and switches in response to the result of the above anticipation whether or not an electronic mail addressed at the user is transferred to the user.
2. Background Art
A conventional electronic mail transmitting and receiving system has been constituted such that, if a user does not access the system, the user cannot know whether or not an electronic mail addressed at the user has arrived. Accordingly, although an electronic mail addressed at the user has arrived at the electronic mail transmitting and receiving system, situations may occur in which a long time passes before the user receives the electronic mail.
A technique to solve such a problem is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 2-58451 (hereinafter, referred to as reference 1). This conventional technique is constituted such that, when a electronic mail has arrived at the electronic mail system, a header portion of the electronic mail is transmitted to facsimile equipment, registered beforehand, and the arrival of the electronic mail and its outline are transmitted to the user.
In contrast, a conventional technique for informing the user of the content of an electronic mail that has arrived at the electronic mail transmitting and receiving equipment even when the user is not in an environment allowing operating a personal computer or an engineering work station is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 9-130425 (hereinafter, referred do as the reference 2). This conventional technique is provided with additional means to the electronic mail transmitting and receiving system such as a mutual conversion means between voice and text letters; a subscriber data storage device for registering the type of receivers which indicates the type of terminal device (telephone and computer) for receiving electronic mail; a modification means for modifying the type of receiver""s which are registered in the subscribers data storage device according to an instruction of the user; wherein, when an electronic mail has arrived addressed at a user using a xe2x80x9ctelephonexe2x80x9d as the type of the receiver, the electronic mail is converted into voice by the mutual conversion means for transmitting to the user by use of a telephone line.
A problem of the conventional technique recited in the reference 1 is that, even when the user does, not think it is necessary to have the information about the arrival of the electronic mail via facsimile equipment, the information is always transmitted to the user by the facsimile equipment. That is, even when the user is in an environment allowing access to the electronic mail transmitting and receiving system for receiving the electronic mail whenever the user thinks it necessary to access to the electronic mail system, the information about the arrival of a electronic mail is always transmitted to the user, which results in generating useless communication expenses. Although it is possible to solve the above problem by additionally providing a device for executing, registration and deletion of the facsimile equipment according to the user""s instruction, such additional provisions will impose a burden for the user.
The first problem of the conventional technique described in the reference 2 is that it imposes a significant burden on the user, since the users must change the type of the receiver by themselves in response to the location of the user. The second problem is that, when the receiver type is set telephone, much time is consumed before the user obtains necessary information, because the entire contents of the electronic mail are converted into voice, irrespective of the size (the line numbers, the letter numbers, and the number of bytes) of the electronic mail.
Although the above mentioned second problem may be solved by use of a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 10-21164 (hereinafter, referred to as the reference 3), which adjusts the size of the electronic mail in response to a bandwidth of the transmission line which transmits the electronic mail, the following problem still remains even if the technique shown in the reference 3 is used. Since reference 3 takes account of only the bandwidth of the transmission line but not the capacity (a display size, a memory size, and a processing speed) of the receiver terminal, there are possibilities of causing deficient information because only a part of an electronic mail is transmitted to the receiver terminal having a high capacity connected to a transmission line having a narrow bandwidth, or causing impossible processing because all the contents of the electronic mail are transmitted to a terminal having a low capacity connected to a transmission line having a broad bandwidth.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electronic mail transmitting and receiving system which anticipates whether or not the user is in an environment allowing access to the system and automatically controls whether or not the electronic mail addressed to this user is transmitted to a transfer device such as facsimile equipment designated beforehand by the user in order to avoid useless communication. Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail transmitting and receiving system which is able to transmit an electronic mail at the optimum quantity of information consistent with the capacity of the auxiliary transfer device which is available for the user at that time.
In the present invention, the present system comprises a mail system monitoring means, a transfer propriety data generating means, and a mail transfer means.
The mail system monitoring means monitors arrival of mail addressed at the user, and the state of transmission and reception of electronic mail by the user.
The transfer propriety data generating means calculates, based on information obtained by the mail system monitoring means, an average time (the access interval) for a user to access the mail system, an average value (a storing time) of time periods from the arrival of an electronic mail to the reception of the mail by the user. Furthermore, the transfer propriety data generating means, based on the access interval, the storing time, and the latest date and time at which the mail system is accessed by the user, anticipates whether or not the user is able to access to the mail system and generates a transfer propriety data based on the result of the anticipation.
The mail transfer means transfers the electronic mail to an auxiliary transfer device such as facsimile equipment, if the mail propriety data indicates it appropriate to transfer the mail when referring to the transfer propriety data at designated time intervals (such as at every fixed time interval), and also if the electronic mail addressed at the user corresponding to the above transfer propriety data is stored in the electronic mail system.
Furthermore, at the time when the user is not present in an environment allowing access to the electronic mail transmitting and receiving system, the electronic mail system of the present invention comprises a transfer device determining means and a transmitting information quantity determining means so as to transmit the content of the electronic mail at an optimum information quantity to comply with the capacity of an auxiliary transfer device.
The transfer device determining means anticipates the location where the user is located from the user location information obtained by the existing GPS or PHS or the like, and also from the user schedule information. In accordance with the result of this anticipation and the transfer device determining rule, the transfer device determining means determines a terminal (device), which is anticipated to be held by the user, as a transfer device.
The transmitting information quantity determining means determines a transmitting information quantity controlling method from the type of the transfer device determined by the transfer device determining means and a transmitting information quantity determining method.
When the electronic mail is transmitted to the transfer device determined by the transfer devices determining means, the mail transfer means controls the transmitting information quantity of electronic mail according to the controlling method determined by the transmitting information quantity determining means.